IT Project

As part of our final assemsment for IT this year, we were asked to create a video using Windows Live Movie Maker. The software is really easy to use and is automatically included in all windows PCs.
Muireann and I decided to make an 'MTV Cribs' styled video, except we filmed around our school and so, decided to call it 'TY-TV Schoolz'
Check out my video below!

Bumble Loops

For mini-company, we had to create a cereal and make an advert to promote the cereal we designed!
Eve, Muireann, Ciara and I decided to call our cereal 'Bumble Loops'. The cereal is chocolate and honey flavoured (a mixture of honey loops and wheetos).
Have a look at our advert below!

Swim a mile with a smile

Last Friday our TY year group participated in the annual Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile. We had all split up into groups, in my group was Ciara, Chanice, Muireann and myself! We started off swiming slowly but as we continued to swim Chanice and I decided we would swim the mile by ourselves.
So, in the end our group swam a total of three miles!

We all had great fun at swim a mile, and afterwards we even spent an hour or so in the local shopping centre Blanchardstown!
Everyone enjoyed the day thouroughly
Blog soon, Abbie

St.Brigid, our patron saint of Kildare

Yesterday our TY year group went on a mini-pilgrimage to Kildare town. First we sopped off at the very centre of Kildare town, at the heritage centre. Here we learnt all about the history of Kildare and St.Brigid.
We watched a really interesting video about St.brigid and Monastic life in Kildare!

After this we ventured across Kildare town to the old cathedral! We all took a quick look around the cathedral and afterwards Mr.K said a few prayers with us.

The cathedral in Kildare town
We then hopped back on the bus to head over to go on our short walk. We visited St.Brigid's well at the National Stud and we visited St.Brigid's holy shrine.

St.Brigid's well

After our trip we all went bowling!

Tallaght TY Retreat

Yesterday our TY year went on a retreat to Tallaght. We all expected it to be similar to our first & second year retreats however at the end of the day we all agreed it was a great experience and was not at all what we expected!
When we first arrived we were directed into a room and greeted by all the staff we would be working with for the day. We also spoke briefly about what matters in life and worries/stresses in life, we then split up into smaller groups and went upstairs! There were 10 of us in my group; Leah, Muireann, Sinéad, Rachel, Sorcha, Chanice, Ciara, Jenny, Emma and myself. We all felt really comfortable with eachother and I felt we could talk about anything!
I thought the day was great, I got a chance to talk about things that I normally wouldn't speak about. I felt like anything I said would not be repeated by any of the girls to anybody else!

Percussion Workshop

On Tuesday, we all came into school excited to participate in our next TY workshop with Dave. We began our workshop by each choosing an African drum to play on, we played on drums called 'Djembe Drums'. We learned how to play lots of different rhythms on these drums.

Next we moved on to creating Poly-rhythm sounds, playing different rhythms on various instruments. I never knew there was so many different African instruments that are used daily, I like others, just assumed the Bongo was the main instrument used!

Near the  our workshop, we had a freestyle period! This was where we seperated into groups and created our own rhythms with the drums and other instruments.

London Fashion Week

As you may know, I did a work experience placement with the fashion designer John Rocha in Dublin. I was busy helping the designers cut out leaf shapes from the fabrics. Last week, John Rocha took part in London Fashion week and showcased some of his designs on the Runway. Some of the outfits I helped create were featured in the show! It was so crazy to see this!

Junk Kouture: Semi-Finalists

The semi-finalists for Junk Kouture were announced this week, and I'm proud to say a group from our school has qualified! These two girls worked really hard on their outfit and well deserved to qualify to the semi-finals! Best of luck in the competition!

DEAR Moment

Our English teacher organised a DEAR (Drop everything and read) moment for us at school this week, we went down to the library and chose a book to read!
I decided to read the Hunger Games by Sazanne Collins, this is one of my favourite series of books!

Build-A-Bear

In Home Ec, we have been working on making our own handmade teddy bears! We bought some materials and began work on our teddy bears!

I chose to use these two materials to make my teddy bear, Denim and a Floral-patterned cotton fabric.

We began making our teddy bear by cutting out templates.

Once all the templates were cut out, we used the templates to cut out our fabric. Once our fabric was cut out we began tacking the pieces together, preparing them for sewing!

These are all of the materials we will be using to make our teddy  bear!

Cassette Tape Art Portraits

We are currently working on an Art project at the moment in which we are all creating portraits from cassette tapes. I chose to make a portrait of Niall Horan for my project.
I began by choosing a picture of Niall and using a photo editor to change the photo from colour to a simple black and white. From the black and white photo I drew the portrait of Niall, only shading in the black areas from the photograph.
Once my drawing was complete, I began to stick down pieces of cassette tapes on to the black spaces on my drawing.

Here are some expamples of what our finished masterpiece will look like!

Michael Jackson

Audrey Hepburn

Caresse Sur L'ocean

Our choir is currently preparing to enter into the Wesley School's Choir Competition at the end of this month! We have been very busy practicing our song 'Caresse Sur L'ocean' from the french movie 'Les Choristes'. I really enjoy singing this song, I think it sounds really well with the piano accompaniment. I sing the Soprano II line along with all the other sopranos!

Above is a clip of the choir from the Les Choristes movie singing the piece!

I am really enjoying being part of the choir this year, and I am looking forward to performing this piece at Wesley!

Blog soon-Abbie

St.Brigid's day crosses

Today in our TY religion class we made St.Brigid's day crosses. We made the crosses out of rushes that our teacher had brought in for us. The crosses were difficult to make but we got the hang of it in the end!
Repeat the process below to create your very own St.Brigid's cross with rushes!

Here's a picture of the cross I made at school earlier!

thanks for reading!- Abbie

Mini Company Judging

We recently had our final showcase of all our TY mini-companies at school! We all prepared for our companies to be judged by judges from the Kildare enterprise board.

We all prepared a visual display on the day, and had also previously prepared a report of our mini-company.  As part of the mini-company competition, each company was required to give a short presentation to the judges to briefly discuss our newly set up enterprise!

All of the mini-companies produced great displays and presented very well. There were even some prizes given out to three mini-companies from each TY class! There was a prize for the report, display and innovation. Our mini-company, DIY Dye won an award for the great work that went into our report!

Blog soon- Abbie :)

BT Young Scientist

We recently visited the BT Young Scientist exhibition in the RDS with our year group. Everyone had a great time, we enjoyed walking around looking at all the projects and of course, collecting some freebies along the way! There was a group from our TY year that got through to the competition, their project was good. It was about how school bags affect your health etc. In all, we had a great day at the Young Scientist!

The Little Nutcracker ballet

On Friday, we went to see the Irish National Youth Ballet perform 'The Little Nutcracker'. There were two girls from our school dancing in the ballet, the skill of all the dancers in the ballet was amazing. They all moved so gracefully around the stage and performed all their dance moves so precisely!
 In the video above, the Irish National Youth Ballet are performing their opening number to the show. -Abbie :)

Junk Kouture Fashion Show!

Today at school we had our fashion show for junk kouture. This was a final showpiece of our creations, everyones outfits looked fantastic with their make-up and hair done! All of the outfits were so creative and they all looked amazing! So much effort went into making these outfits, we were all so proud when they were finally finished!

Muireann modeling our outfit!

The picture above is of our outfit, since my last Junk Kouture post, we have made a headpiece and decorated shoes to be worn with our outfit. We made the headpiece by attached a pom-pom made from tape to an old hairband. The shoes were decorated by wrapping tape around them and attaching them to the front of the shoes. I'm really happy with how our outfit turned out, we all aggreed we had worked as hard as we could to make it the best we could!
The fashion show was really great, it was so much fun! I loved looking at what outfits everyone else had created and what ideas they came up with!

-Blog soon, Abbie

Gaisce

Two weeks, ago I submitted my entry for gaisce. Gaisce is the 'president's award', students who nominate themselves for the awards set goals for themselves under the following headings: Community invlovement, Personal skills, Physical recreation and Adventure journey.

A minimum of 1 hour a week is required in each of the first 3 challenge areas. At the end of the programme, nominees undertake an adventure journey for one night and two days. We must also undertake one of the challenges for 26 weeks, twice the lenght of the other (13 weeks).

For my gaisce, I am doing camogie for the Physical recreation activity and I am doing this for 26 weeks. I am doing life saving for my personal skill and underage coaching for my community involvement.

I am really looking forward to completing my gaisce, bring on the challenge!

Life-saving

End of first work experience placement!

Today was the end of our first work experience placement! This placement was really great, I learnt so much! For my last day I went to an orthadontist in Naas, I leanrt all about braces here! I was also shown how to make mouthguards and retainers. I even made a mouthguard for myself to practice

The mouthguard I made is purple and white, as you can see from the photo. I can use it for any sports now!
In all, I learnt so much about dentistry, I now know what is involved in a career of dentistry and what type of work is done.

-Blog again soon, Abbie

Choir

Along with a few of my friends, I joined the school choir this year, we go to choir every Monday during lunch and after school for an hour every Tuesday.

On Monday we practice our christmas songs for the annual carol service. We sing classic christmas songs like Silent Night

On Tuesdays we practice our piece for the 'Wesley School Choir Competition'. The song we are singing for this compition is 'Caresse Sur L'Océan', this is a french song!

A school last year singing at Wesley

I'm really enjoying choir and I'm looking forward to our upcoming performances!